The
ants were busy on the ground, big black ones with shiny bodies and
the little dusty quick ants. Kino watched with the detachment of
God while a dusty ant frantically tried to escape the sand trap
an ant lion had dug for him.
He watched the ants moving, a little column of them
near to his foot, and he put his foot in their path. Then the column
climbed over his instep and continued on its way, and Kino left
his foot there and watched them move over it.
These two quotations are from Chapter 1 and
Chapter 6, respectively. Kino’s two encounters
with ants are not important to the novel’s plot, but they reveal
a great deal about Kino’s position and attitude at two key moments
in the novel and thus form an important contrast with one another.
The quotation from Chapter 1 occurs during
the idyllic opening description of Kino and Juana’s life. Kino’s
detached attitude toward nature suggests that he is a part of nature
but also above it, like God. The description of the ant caught in
the sand trap is a subtle instance of foreshadowing, as it mirrors
Kino’s eventual experience as a helpless prisoner of his own ambition.
The quotation from Chapter 6 describes
Kino after the pearl has corrupted him. He is no longer detached
from nature, and therefore he is no longer like God. Yet, as he
becomes more animal-like, he aspires to be more like God by trying
to affect the ants’ behavior when he places his foot in their path.
He does not succeed in changing nature, however; rather, nature
simply renders him insignificant, as the ants methodically ignore
him and climb over his shoe. As Kino’s greed brings him from his
initial human dignity to a plane closer to that of animals, he loses
something essential to his humanity, as well as the easy, simple
relationship with nature he enjoys early in the novella.
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